I had started working on a set of songs as I was finishing college; I didn’t have a band, though, and after the fun I had recording with other people on the Square Miles EP, I decided I wanted to do another full band recording. Luckily, a couple of my friends were in a band called Tenley, and they were amenable to helping me out with my songs. I piggybacked on their practices — as soon as they were finished, Keith (their singer) would step aside, and I’d jump in and we’d work on my songs for a bit. This worked pretty well, and we eventually booked some time at an acquaintance’s basement studio to record.
When they were done, I sat on the songs for a long time (over a year), and then I decided to take the step of actually releasing Tenille as a for-sale product. That was OK in the beginning, as friends and family purchased copies. After that though, the sales dried up, despite the fact that I had it up for sale on iTunes and CDBaby. The fact that I didn’t actively do a lot of shows and try to sell there couldn’t have helped either. Anyway, I am hoping the songs will be enjoyed further in their free, online state.
The “hits” on this one are probably Big Arm and Hard to Be, but I like the EP as a whole, and at that point, I was convinced it was the best thing I’d done. Thanks to Keith, Jason, Dan, Billy and Steve for all your help in making this happen and being my band for a short while.
ZIP file of all songs (ZIP, 14.7 MB)
01 Hard To Be (MP3, 3.7 MB)
02 Fragments (MP3, 2.4 MB)
03 Big Arm (MP3, 3.0 MB)
04 Waiting For Machines (MP3, 2.2 MB)
05 The Lions Tame (MP3, 3.6 MB)
Bonus song
This song isn’t actually part of the EP, but my friend and local hip hop artist Big Now decided he liked the music for Waiting for Machines enough to lay down a few rhymes on top of it at the end of the song. The result is great, and obviously very different than anything I can do. Have a listen:
Waiting For Machines, featuring Big Now (MP3, 2.9 MB)
4 comments ↓
I’ve always loved Big Arm, but, wow, I dig that Waiting for Machines too–and I love Waiting for Machines with Big Now…great stuff as usual.
Thanks Matt!
thanks 4 the props
[…] Bandcamp. By “proper” releases, I mean the ones I ever made a physical object for, so Tenille, the Low Hello EP, and How Does It Know?. I am not sure still if I will put up the rest of the […]
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